


this is the way you left me

by genresavvy



Category: The Purge (2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:48:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genresavvy/pseuds/genresavvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>it's funny, she always thought she was safe from this side of the purge</p>
            </blockquote>





	this is the way you left me

After she watches the stranger -- it occurs to her that she never did find out what his name was -- walk away, Mary walks back into her house, and sits with her children by her husband's corpse. Calling 911 right now would be completely worthless, as any emergency response teams are taking care of the biggest problems caused by people who participated in the Purge. It's better to wait out the first hour or so before calling the 911 when the Purge is over, if it can be helped.

It's funny, she always thought that she was safe from this side of the Purge, because of her wealth, her security system, her neighborhood --

Her stomach turns as she imagines having to make small talk with the same people who were so ready to murder her and her children, who were disappointed to find James dead, because that mean that they couldn't kill him, too. The possibility of having to make small talk with them only repulses her further.

The answer to that is so immediately obvious that she doesn't even have to think about it, she just clears her throat, "We should move."

Charlie and Zoey start to protest, then stop, and she watches as they both internally go through the list of what happened in the past twelve hours, from Zoey's boyfriend trying to kill her father to a spoiled rich kid actually killing him to the neighbors saving them only to try and kill them, too. For a while, they're quiet. Then they both nod in agreement.

Relieved that they agreed, she swallows, feeling the shock starting to wear off. Her husband is dead and it's starting to sink in, she needs to get out what she has to say before she completely falls apart, "We'll call 911 in a couple of hours, after things settle down some. After that I'll call a cleaning service."

They nod quietly again, and then they all sit there, by the corpse of her husband and their father.

The moment the word 'corpse' enters her mind is the moment that she starts sobbing.

* * *

 

After that night, nothing is the same.

James is gone, and her whole world feels off kilter. Fortunately, they worked financial things together, so she isn't left with a stack of bills and accounts that she only has a vague idea of how to deal with. It doesn't make the fact that he's not there any better, but it doesn't make it any worse, which is really all that she can ask for.

(Some nights she wakes up and forgets that he's dead, thinks that he's gone to the bathroom or making some tea because he can't sleep and then she remembers everything, and she can't stop herself from crying, even if she wanted to.

Some nights she wakes up from any number of nightmares where he dies again, whether it's by the spoiled rich kids who broke into their house or some other danger, and she wakes up alone in their bed, knowing that the reality of what happened is worse than the nightmares.)

The entire neighborhood knows about what happened at her house. They whisper about it behind her back -- she doesn't know exactly what they're saying, she just knows that it's happening -- and offering false sympathy in the form of flowers and solemn visits to the house. Before she would respond to the gestures the way that she's supposed to, but she knows that most of them are still friends with the people who were going to murder her and her children, so she feels no guilt when she slams the door in their face or tells them that no she doesn't want their fucking casserole. Grace tries to make small talk with her once.

Once.

The punch to the face stops it from happening again.

Zoey and Charlie don't talk much about school to begin with, but they talk even less about it now. Mary knows she should ask more, find out how things are going, but she's going to work and planning her husband's funeral and searching for a new house, and, frankly, she's too exhausted. She does her best to make sure they know that she cares, and hopes that they understand that it's going to be a while before she's anywhere near 'okay' again.

She doesn't know what she's going to do when the next Purge comes around. Obviously, she's not going to take part in it, but she knows she can't just sit in her house and wait for it to be over like she used to. She can't ignore how much the Purge disgusts her, because now she realizes just how wrong it is. It's not a release, it's an excuse. 

If only it hadn't taken her husband's murder for her to realize that.


End file.
